Kernel Engineer

At Modular, we’re on a mission to revolutionize AI infrastructure by systematically rebuilding the AI software stack from the ground up. Our team, made up of industry leaders and experts, is building cutting‑edge, modular infrastructure that simplifies AI development and deployment. By rethinking the complexities of AI systems, we’re empowering everyone to unlock AI’s full potential and tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

If you’re passionate about shaping the future of AI and creating tools that make a real difference in people’s lives, we want you on our team. You can read about our culture and careers to understand how we work and what we value.

ML developers today face significant friction in taking trained models into deployment. They work in a highly fragmented space, with incomplete and patchwork solutions that require significant performance tuning and non-generalizable/model-specific enhancements. At Modular, we are building the next generation AI platform that will radically improve the way developers build and deploy AI models.

As an AI Kernel Engineer, you'll be instrumental in building our core libraries that enable developers to leverage deployment-specific optimizations across diverse model families and frameworks. You will be crafting high-performance kernels for GPUs and emerging hardware architectures. You'll drive critical performance improvements through kernel optimizations that:

• Accelerate model latency and maximize throughput
• Minimize communication overhead and optimize resource utilization
• Streamline memory usage through reduced activation volumes
• Enhance data pre‑ and post‑processing pipelines
• Deliver measurable end‑to‑end performance gains across our model ecosystem

This role puts you at the cutting edge of AI infrastructure, where your work directly impacts the speed and efficiency of AI applications at scale.

LOCATION: Candidates based in the US or Canada are welcome to apply. To support growth and collaboration, those in earlier career stages work in a hybrid capacity at our Los Altos, CA office (minimum 2 days per week on‑site) with relocation assistance provided for out‑of‑state candidates.

• Design and optimize high-performance ML numeric and data manipulation kernels.
• Benchmark kernel performance and conduct performance analysis.
• Diagnose performance bottlenecks and implement kernel improvements.
• Collaborate with framework and compiler teams to deliver end‑to‑end AI performance that fully utilizes new hardware or GPU capabilities.
• Ensure kernel correctness, maintainability, and test coverage.

• Experience in GPU programming and parallel computing
• Solid understanding of CPU/GPU memory hierarchy and performance modeling
• Proficiency in Python or C++
• Familiarity with assembly language
• Hands‑on experience with GPU profiling and debugging tools
• Strong foundation in algorithms and data structures
• Deep interest in machine learning technologies and use cases.
• Creativity and curiosity for solving complex problems, a team-oriented attitude that enables you to work well with others, and alignment with our culture.

• Experience with ML framework kernel development (Triton, PyTorch, Tensor Flow XLA) and libraries (cuBLAS, CUTE etc.)
• Knowledge of GPU ISA‑level optimization (PTX, SASS, GCN).
• Experience with multi‑GPU communication frameworks (NCCL, RCCL, MPI).
• Contributions to open‑source GPU or HPC communities.
• Knowledge of AI algorithms and state‑of‑the‑art LLMs

• Amazing Team. We are a progressive and agile team with some of the industry’s best engineering and product leaders.
• World‑class Benefits. In order to attract the best, we need to offer the best. Premier insurance plans, up to 5% 401k matching, flexible paid time off, and more are available to you! Please note that specific benefit packages may vary based on your location.
• Competitive Compensation. We offer very strong compensation packages, including stock options. We want people to be focused on their best work and believe in tailoring compensation plans to meet the needs of our workforce.
• Team Building Events. We…